More Music for Less Money

If you like to listen to your favorite songs online, you've probably noticed all the music-streaming services competing for your attention. But with so many choices out there, do you stick with the free services or are the premium ones really worth the extra cost?

Let's look at your options, beginning with the free services. If you want to stream live radio, iHeartRadio will give you unlimited access to more than 1,500 different radio stations across the country. It also has the largest catalog of all the radio apps.

You'll be able to stream over 15 million songs, cost-free and ad-free. Keep in mind, this service works like an actual radio station, so while you can steer it in a musical direction, the program selects the songs you hear.

Now, let's talk about Spotify. This popular streamer offers more options than any other free service and is best for people who want total control over which songs, albums, and playlists they want to hear. However, the free version does have quite a few ads. If you don't want any interruptions, you can always upgrade to the premium version, but for a cost.

This brings us to our next category: paid music streaming. The three main benefits you'll get with paid services are unlimited downloads, no ads and offline listening. The good news is that the cost is usually the same across the board, about $10 per month.

Rhapsody has the largest selection of songs of them all, with over 32 million -- that's 10 million more than anyone else. Meanwhile, Google Play's "All Access" subscription will get you on-demand streaming of millions of songs, and you'll be able to add up to 20,000 of your own songs to play on any device.

So, when it comes to music streaming, paying extra will get you some perks, but depending on what you're into, it's not always necessary. Think about what your music needs are before you spend for songs.

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Top-Earning Musicians

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More Music for Less Money -- Savings Experiment

Top musicians may claim they're not in it for the money, but none of them are turning down their tremendous paychecks. According to Forbes, the top five musical acts pulled in more than $360 million from June 2006 to June 2007.

Want to know which songsters are making the big bucks? Click through this gallery to see whose incomes are through the roof.Read Full Story

Total Earnings: $88 million

The Stones had the highest grossing tour in North America last year. This time around, Keith Richards, not Mick Jagger, dominated headlines thanks to his star turn in the recent 'Pirates of the Caribbean' sequel.

While most of us pine for retirement, the native New Yorker couldn't stand the view from the sidelines following his 2003 farewell 'Black Album'. Despite a busy schedule as chief of Def Jam, his comeback album, 'Kingdom Come,' debuted at the top of Billboard's pop and rap charts.

Madonna crisscrossed the globe last year for her tour, "Confessions," which drew more than 1 million fans and grossed $194 million, making it the top-earning tour by a female artist in history. NBC cut the Material Girl a hefty check to broadcast the "Confessions" tour live last November, though ratings proved disappointing.

Only a couple of years away from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame eligibility, Bon Jovi is still selling albums and cleaning up at the box office. The band's "Have a Nice Day" tour brought in $110 million last year in ticket sales and Bon Jovi sold three million records worldwide last year.

Between performances of his flamboyant Las Vegas show, "The Red Piano," Elton John grossed more than $60 million in tickets for worldwide shows. John's latest release, 'Rocket Man: Number Ones,' debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard charts in April, selling 50,000 copies in its first week.